Abstract
I examine here the technologies of power at work when political figures are constructed as criminals in regimes in which, however thin, the veneer of political freedom matters. In such situations, the establishment of the “truth” of charges of criminality is central. I focus on a historic example, the construction of Emiliano Zapata, leader of the southern forces of the Mexican revolution of 1910, as a criminal.1 My discussion takes place against the backdrop of my ethnographic research in Buena Vista, a town in Morelos, Mexico, where Zapata is today considered a local hero, and where residents have experienced the Mexican state’s use of criminal charges against political activists.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Bazant, Jan 1977 A Concise History of Mexico from Hidalgo to Cardenas, 1805–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brunk, Samuel 1995 Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Brunk, Samuel 1996 “The Sad Situation of Civilians and Soldiers”: The Banditry of Zapatismo in the Mexican Revolution. American Historical Review 101: 331–353.
Comte, Auguste 2001 The Positivist Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Harriet Martineau, trans. Bristol, England: Thoemmes.
Foucault, Michel 1975 I Pierre Rivire, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, and my brother: A Case of Parricide in the 19th Century. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
Foucault, Michel 1990 The History of Sexuality: Volume 1: An Introduction. New York: Vintage Books.
Foucault, Michel 1991 Governmentality. In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, eds. Pp. 87–104. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gordon, Colin 1991 Governmental Rationality: An Introduction. In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, eds. Pp. 1–51. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Knight, Alan 1986 The Mexican Revolution: Volume 1: Porfirians, Liberals and Peasants. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Lombroso-Ferrero, Gina 1972 (1911) Lombroso’s Criminal Man. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith.
Martin, JoAnn 1993 Contesting Authenticity: Battles over the Representation of History in Morelos, Mexico. Ethnohistory 40 (3): 438–466.
Miller, Robert Ryal 1985 Mexico: A History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
O’Malley, Ilene 1986 The Myth of the Revolution: Hero Cults and the Institutionalization of the Mexican State, 1920–1940. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Slotkin, Richard 1973 Narratives of Negro Crime in New England, 1675–1800. American Quarterly 25: 3–31.
Wilson, James Q. and Richard J. Herrnstein 1985 Crimes and Human Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Wolf, Eric 1969 Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper and Row.
Womack, John 1968 Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Vintage Books.
Wilson, James Q. and Richard J. Herrnstein 1985 Crimes and Human Nature. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2003 Philip C. Parnell and Stephanie C. Kane
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Martin, J. (2003). Criminal Instabilities. In: Parnell, P.C., Kane, S.C. (eds) Crime’s Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980595_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980595_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-6180-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-8059-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)